3D-printing - do you mostly design or download?

[My Old Landy]

I started designing on paper, I was trained by a colleague after an accident at work meant I couldn't work in the tool room anymore.
I moved to 2D cad using AutoCAD in DOS! 3D came later. I think that being a tool maker then moving to design and electronics gave me the interest in printing.
I design for fun and work, it's all good to me!

 

[m_c]

Probably 90% designed, as that's what generates some of my side income, as printing downloads has little profit in it.
The downloads I do print, are usually for my own use.

 

[Wedg1e]

Printer : Prusa MK3s
Filament: 5.036Km
Duration: 67d 2h 48m
Owned: 5 years 4months

I've only down loaded and printed one item (a Raspberry PI case) because I needed it in a hurry and didn't mind what it looked like. Most things for download just aren't quite what I want or not happy with the design so end up designing from scratch.

Raspbery Pi case you say... here's one I made earlier

Haven't downloaded a thing since we got the printer at work; everything has been bespoke, designed by me in AutoCAD.
Printer is a Creality CR10S-5 (about 400mm cubed build area - needed it for splashguards and belt guards on an inspection machine we built).

 

[ukracer]

"Downloaded. Still trying to get to grips with design software, currently"

As per above.
99% downloaded. Can't design for toffee but just started to get a few basic things created.

 

[Wedg1e]

"Downloaded. Still trying to get to grips with design software, currently"

As per above.
99% downloaded. Can't design for toffee but just started to get a few basic things created.

It's like buying a welder before you can weld, or a guitar before you can pluck it.
Ability grows to match the need

 

[Onoff]

We've not found a surefire/accurate way of remodeling .STL files. Rare you can download a .STP.

 

[Ali]

I was thinking of posting the same question recently - interesting results. I recall when printers became cheaper there was a lot of hype about everyone having one in their home - at the time I thought this would never happen as consumers wouldn’t be able to design, but the number of people I’ve come across who have a printer but no interest in learning CAD has surprised me recently. One guy I know just downloads novelty things and sells them. I started using 3D printers well before the likes of Thingiverse etc., and there was no o
option other than designing for yourself. I still haven’t got one at home, but it’s becoming more tempting

@Dr.Al you would love resin prints, if you would like something printing to see the quality / accuracy for jigs & tooling etc. send me an STL.

 

[Onoff]

I design in AutoCAD 2010. Lad designs in Fusion 360.

If I send him a .STL created in AutoCAD and it needs tweaking he can't. I have to tweak the original drawing and send him another .STL.

 

[Ali]

I design in AutoCAD 2010. Lad designs in Fusion 360.

If I send him a .STL created in AutoCAD and it needs tweaking he can't. I have to tweak the original drawing and send him another .STL.

I’ve had reasonable success converting STLs to solid in Fusion360.

 

[Red'n'Black]

I don't have my own printer, I use the ones at work. We had two Ultimakers, I wasn't in charge of maintaining them but they always seemed a bit temperamental.

Now we have a Raise3D, that's been brilliant but at 10x the price, you'd hope so. Every print I've put through it, I designed myself in Sketchup. I still use the 2016 free version, the last standalone one before it went cloud only. It's a bit limited but very easy to learn.

 

[EBME2]

Probably about 40% download, 60% designed in Fusion 360. But the designed stuff is increasing as my skill improves, unless you do it regularly you forget some of the clever stuff, or I do.

 

[Screwdriver]

I edit .STL files in Sketchup all the time. In fact I am working on one now (work best in the early hours... )



Was a free download from somewhere but Collada .DAE file (yeuch).

Export from Blender as a .STL, import into Sketchup then break it up into "groups" for ease of editing, then make the thing 3d printable. Lot of files out there are cosmetic 3d models, just need a good tweak to get them to print. I find a lot of fossil/skeleton scans on various museum websites and bump them into printable files. Most of them are not printer firendly!

Quite happy to use someone else's files, I can literally spend months on developing my own models so if they're giving them away...

In truth though, they're typically kids toys or science interest doodads (for actual kids, honest!) but I can't resist a good interlocking impossible shape thing.

Designing a bespoke solution is the absolute best use for a 3d printer though and I pretty much design and print non stop, all day every day. I honestly wish I wasn't so stuck on Sketchup (free version from 2017!!) but nothing comes close for its primary purpose as a design sketch tool. I am however looking closely at Shapr3d. It might fit the bill.

I'll be damned if I am paying to rent a modern version of Sketchup. The pricing is INSANE!

 

[Dapph2]

I WOWN a self built Prusa Mk 3 i S upgraded TO THE HIGHEST VERSION , getting on for 10 (??) years ago .

Learnt reasonable level of Fusion 360 around the time this 3D forum was started , did loads of designs and prints for setting up my micro misting sprayers in the garden and on four outside bonsai benches . Did several hinges with 5 x 4 inch wide leaves to make hinges for 10 bird boxes .
I never bothered to learn how to down load thingy verse etc etc but have recently had some one 3D print up a a Titan table top saw bench discharge tube so i can firt my big Titan vacuum suction tube to remove dust etc.

Made over a hundred adaptor blocks so I could fit 1/4 neoprene tubes on to 8 & 10 mm 400mm carbon fibre rods to set the 100 plus outside misting heads on in the gardens .

Then I had a mild diabetic related stroke and the shoulder & spinal injuries over took me .
So I haven't played with either Fusion or the printer for a good 4 years or more . and several hundred link arms & fittings to make multi directional arms to set over head misters up in the glass house .

I'm going to do an ARNIE .." I will be back ! " , once this metal replaced reverse shoulder joint settles down and all the cut muscles regain some power .

 

[Dr.Al]

We've not found a surefire/accurate way of remodeling .STL files. Rare you can download a .STP.

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be a really good option (one of the reasons I consider STEP export as an essential feature of CAD software). I had a trial of some software that did an okay-ish job of it automatically but it wasn't good enough to be worth paying for.

There's a good video on how to reverse-engineer STLs via a fairly manual route. It's for Solidworks but the principles apply to any CAD software. However, it's definitely better to get a STEP file if you can. Back when I did occasionally download models and wanted to modify them, I sometimes got in touch with the creator and asked if they could share a STEP file. On most occasions they did.

@Dr.Al you would love resin prints, if you would like something printing to see the quality / accuracy for jigs & tooling etc. send me an STL.

I'm surprised by that to be honest. I'd always (perhaps incorrectly) assumed that resin printers were for people who wanted to make little novelty character models and things like that, which has never interested me in the slightest.

 

[Tangledfeet]

Design, I've only made one thing that I downloaded.

 

[Screwdriver]

We've not found a surefire/accurate way of remodeling .STL files.

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be a really good option

 

[chunkytfg]

I've had my printer about a week so still burning though filament making all the stuff I can download early from Creality cloud and Makerworld. Generally useful things though and not random models with no purpose.

Having not been able to find something I need for workshop organisation I'm not trying to work out the gridfinity system and hoping I can get the Fusion360 plugin for it to work so I can have a play making custom boxes for it.

 

[skotl]

The only things I've downloaded are mods for the new Centauri Carbon printer itself - everything else, I've designed in Fusion 360.

It may just be me but I've found the whole download experience utterly frustrating, from having to jump through hoops to get it into whatever tool (Fusion or the Slicer) to getting them aligned on the board, to even understanding how to fit them together. That last point is a grumble - obviously I've benefited from someone else's work, but it would be good if the downloads came with adequate "instructions".

So I would always try to design myself.

 

[skotl]

...who wanted to make little novelty character models and things like that, which has never interested me in the slightest.

Me too. Really don't get this, but then I'm not an ornament type of person so maybe that's part of it.

 

[Dr.Al]

View attachment 519558

Sorry, I don't consider Sketchup a good option. I'd probably choose tinkercad if I wanted a mesh editor, but a good option for me is importing into parametric CAD like you can with STEP or Parasolid. Fundamentally STL is just a bad format for sharing and editing.